I love a police procedure and I hadn’t read this author before. Apparently there is a previous book with the main character but this read fine on its own. I loved all the uncertainties of whodunnit. Read it really quickly and would definitely recommend.

What a premise and what a ride.

This book grabbed me from the start because it’s such an unusual situation.

Read if you like a good police procedural like Val McDermit

This is an interesting case, the victim of the crime is an unpleasant character, but not so much that he deserved to be murdered. Especially since the murderer has managed to not leave any trace. Add to this DI Isabel Blood has family issues to deal with. A good read.

The police procedural is a classic format and I think the attraction is the slow reveal of suspects and secrets in particular with murder mysteries who was the victim and why are so many people likely to have killed them? In Jane Bettany’s Without A Trace a fantastic hook is deliver to create a solid interesting thriller with some surprises lurking around the corner.

Finding an unknown dead body in your bed will ruin anyone’s day and that happens for Ruth who after a day at work arrives to her recently bought home to find a man stabbed to death in her home. This brings about DI Isabel Blood to soon commence investigation with her trusted team. They soon work out the victim’s identity but motive for a man most felt was a pain in the neck but motive for the killing eludes them for a while before a world of family ties and secrets starts to be revealed.

The impressive opening scene where Ruth discovers the body is a brilliantly delivered hook for the reader a crime so unusual you need to understand the motive and also how it was done. Di Blood and her team are a very solid practical set of investigators and what I enjoyed most was how it showed the legwork of the investigation going through all witnesses and people tied to the house and victim to try and find that elusive clue. This is very much a tale of the art of investigation through conversation watching for clues being revealed and picked up be it in body language or small facts that match up. This is a brain teaser of a puzzle with a really unusual and powerful underlying cause.

DI Blood is less your renegade investigator but more an experienced capable fifty-seven-year-old woman in a key role directing her team and knowing when to press or push. Tying into the story is a mirror plot of BI Blood herself meeting her absentee father for the first time and unpeeling various secrets about his past life including a relationship with her step-brother that looks to start in hostility. Its refreshing to see someone you’d trust with an investigation in charge, and I enjoyed how Bettany creates her characters - they come to life as realistic rather than larger than life you get a strong realistic feel across the book as if this really was a standard murder investigation.

This links to my main issue is that there are some pacing issues in the scenes after the amazing hook. The energy of that crime scene gets turned to a low heat while we try to find out more about victim and who could have got into Ruth’s house, but it felt that the sense of urgency had fled the book replaced with many scenes of people being asked about if they had a key. Halfway through the tension returns and the finale is very well delivered but it did feel that the need for a realistic investigation may have sapped some energy away in those early chapters.

Without a trace is a fine solid thriller with an amazing hook and a very promising lead investigator and her team. It would be an enjoyable winter thriller to read ideally as you’re coming home to an empty house (or at least one you think is empty).

A solid police procedural mystery with a plot that kept me interested.

I did feel that it was a bit too heavy on the procedural part which resulted in little character development for the large cast of characters. I came away not really connecting to any of them and therefore liking the book rather than loving it.

An easy, uncomplicated read. I enjoyed the premise of this book, and I love a good 'whodunnit, but unfortunately it didn't hold my attention enough to continuously pick this book up. The characters were a little drab and the backstory just didn't grip me.

Good storyline, lots of false leads and twists and turns. Who would think such violence can occur in an English town. The outcome was surprising.
The side story of Isabel and her estranged father and new step-brother. How would this re-union play out?

Isabel Blood is one of the reason why i love this police procedural series: she's a happy person, no trauma and no chip on her shoulder.
This is a rarity and I love how the author developed her.
It's a compelling, gripping and highly entertaining mystery, it kept me reading and guessing.
There's a lot of twists, an interesting setting and a great cast of characters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really enjoyed this detective novel set in Derbyshire. Though the second in a series involving DI Blood, it didn’t matter at all that I’d not read the first.

A woman returns to her new home only to find a dead body in her bed. Once the corpse has been identified we follow a range of possible lines of inquiry in an effort to uncover how this happened which is not straightforward given the apparent lack of forensic evidence. All this is happening whilst DI Blood’s long lost father and half brother are over from France helping advance an interesting family back story.

The author writes very well - kept me hooked late into the evening and I’m ready for the next instalment

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for a fair review

A woman comes home to find a dead man snuggly tucked in her bed. The police are called, and it is a murder of a man with no ID. How the team of detectives with no leads and under a lot of pressure cope with tneir inter relations, domestic tensions, and the demands of the case makes an interesting story of how dedicated meticulous attention to detail, spite of conflicting red herrings, solves in the case.

Without a Trace is the second instalment in Jane Bettany's D.I. Isabel Blood series, set in the (fictional) town of Bainbridge, Derbyshire, UK.
This book opens in similarly dramatic style to its predecessor (In Cold Blood). Newly divorced professional woman Ruth Prendergast returns to her recently-purchased home after work, expecting a quiet night in, and finds a dead man lying tucked into her bed! Although he appears to be sleeping, early investigations reveal he's been fatally stabbed - this is murder. But who is this man, why is he in Ruth's home, and how did he (and his murderer) gain entry?
For local D.I. Isabel Blood, this new case couldn't come at a more inconvenient time. She's due to take a week's leave to spend quality time getting to know her father, who she's not seen for over 40 years, due to circumstances that are explained in the previous book. As it is, she has no option but to collect her father - unexpectedly accompanied by her French half-brother, Fabien - from the airport, drop him to a hotel and promise to catch up later.
The team quickly identifies the dead man as an unpopular local mechanic, who has a criminal record for assaulting a woman and is a regular at various insalubrious drinking establishments. No link can be found between the victim and Ruth Prendergast, who is new to both the house and Bainbridge. Despite their tenacity in following up various leads, Blood's team are having difficulty in establishing a motive for the crime, or any viable suspects. Then Ruth Prendergast goes missing without explanation...
Without a Trace is an engrossing read with two intertwined narrative threads - one, the murder investigation, the other the unfolding family drama around Isabel's reunion with her father. Both are well-developed, although I did sometimes feel as though the pace slackened a bit during the family interludes and I was itching to get back to the murder investigation plot.
D.I. Isabel Blood continues to be an intriguing and sympathetic character, who sometimes struggles to balance the long hours and dedication required of her police career with her contented family life. The cast of supporting characters are also varied and engaging, in particular the recurring characters forming D.I. Blood's closest colleagues.
The dramatic conclusion, in which the killer is unmasked, is surprising but satisfying, and a final twist brings a touch of pathos.
While Without a Trace works well as a standalone or entry point to the series, reading in series order would allow the reader greater understanding of Isabel's complicated family backstory.
Without a Trace is character-driven crime/mystery fiction in a traditional style, without too much in the way of gory crime scenes or gritty settings. It's a satisfying read, and I look forward to future instalments in the series.
My thanks to the author, Jane Bettany, publisher HQ, HQ Digital (HarperCollins) and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Another new to me author. I loved Without A Trace. It was a refreshing change to read a crime thriller where not only was the lead detective a woman but one with a family and a reasonably happy home life. The well written plot is filled with intricate details that are woven together in a classic whodunnit which centres around something that I’ve thought about on numerous occasions – how many people actually consider changing the locks when they buy a new house? After reading this book it’s definitely the first thing I’d do. The characters are all well developed, each one bringing something to the story and it will be interesting to see the various relationships develop if this series should run. The main thing I loved about this story though was when the murderer was unmasked at the end, everything was explained away satisfactorily. From the smallest clue to the motive behind the crime. My personal pet hate when reading a mystery/thriller is when the culprit turns out to be a character who is only introduced in the last few chapters. Judging by this book there’s not much chance of Jane Bettany doing that in any future novels.

The second book in a series but reads fine as a stand alone.

The book was an easy read that didn't take too much effort. An interesting murder investigation is the main focus of the story but also the story into DI Issy Blood's reunion with her father which helps to add depth to her character. I worked out some of the ending but not all of it which I was please about.

All in all an easy wet weekend read.

Regrettably this book was a disappointment. I really didn't click with DI Blood at all. Her personality jarred with me. The story was pretty flimsy and the plot didn't really hold water. The family back story was boring and added nothing. Characters were rather stereotypical and two dimensional. Far too obvious who the guilty party was and then trying to blind us with science at the end just didn't come off.
Shame

Without a Trace is the second book in this series, but it can be read as a standalone. I was initially drawn to it as I don’t live very far from Derby, although the town it is fictional.

I can’t think of anything worse than finding a dead body in my house, although, Ruth had just done that. The poor woman had not long moved into the area and had not got a clue who this man was. It was a quiet area that she lived in with a couple of the houses empty and people that were out at work through the day in the others. The police were not going to have a lot to go on.

I liked Detective Isabel Blood straight away, who had taken time off work to enjoy family time. To say that her family was complicated would be like saying that ice wasn’t cold. The added stress of being called in to support the murder investigation did not make life easy.

I enjoyed this book, which had a good balance of work and home for Isobel. It wasn’t gruesome either, with over the top details of the crime. I liked working out the clues as they came up too. A very unusual story. I am looking forward to more books from this author.

I wish to thank the publisher and Net Galley for an e-copy of this book, which I have reviewed honestly.

What a brilliant storyline well written suspense kept me guessing from start to finish.Would recommend this book and author to anyone who likes crime thrillers.Would love to read more from this author,if there as well written as this was.Overall a first class read

Brilliant book. A real whodunit. The plot is brilliant and I definitely reccomend it to others. Lots of twists and turns to keep the reader on the edge of the page.

This was a really good murder mystery that kept me guessing. It was an easy read and I didn't want to put it down. Having read a lot of thrillers it was refreshing to have a different type of crime scene and the mystery around it kept me hooked.

The second book in the series which could be read as a stand-alone. The story is quite weak and the addition of Isabel’s family drama slows down the pace. Though the police investigation part is good, it could not save the show.

I read the author’s debut, In Cold Blood, for the blog tour last year and really enjoyed it so was keen to read this book when I heard about it!

Without a Trace is set in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge and the novel’s main protagonist is Detective Inspector (DI) Isabel Blood (56), wife of Nathan and mum to Kate, who lives in nearby Wirksworth, Ellie (14) and son, Bailey (who’s not mentioned in this novel).

Ruth Prendergast has only recently moved to the area after a divorce and getting a new job as an HR manager at a telecommunications company and one January evening, after a hard day at work, she’s shocked to discover the dead body of an unknown man in her bed. She’s got no idea who he is and the police are confused about how he got into the house as there is no sign of forced entry.

The timing of the murder investigation is particularly difficult for DI Isabel Blood who is on her way to the airport – and due to start two-weeks’ leave – when she’s phoned by her colleague, Detective Sergeant (DS) Dan Fairfax. She’s back in touch with her father, Donald Corrington, who she hasn’t seen for over forty years, after he left when she was 14 years old, and he’s visiting from France for a couple of weeks.

The case gets off to a slow start as the murder took place in a quiet cul-de-sac of only five houses called Hollybrook Close in the north side of Bainbridge and there are few witnesses to question. The victim, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife, is eventually identified as a 47-year-old local car mechanic who has a criminal record and is an alcoholic with a difficult past but doesn’t appear to have any particular enemies who would want him dead.

DI Blood delegates all the various tasks of the case well to her colleagues but she struggles to give the investigation her full attention with her dad and half-brother, Fabien, visiting. They’re staying at a local hotel and she’s desperate to spend time together to get to know them both but can’t with a murder to solve. When Ruth goes missing, the police are even more confused and desperately try to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together, but struggle with a complete lack of evidence all round.

This was another gripping and well-paced police procedural from the author and I really enjoyed the way the cleverly plotted investigation slowly unfolded, with its frustrations and dead ends, before things eventually came together and the case was solved. It’s a satisfying, engaging read and I raced through it in a few hours.

The story was very entertaining, with some intriguing and surprising revelations. I had several theories about the identity of the killer as we met various suspects and learnt more about their connections to others but didn’t predict how it would all turn out.

I really like Isabel Blood – she dedicated to her job, methodical and thorough, and seems quite normal for a police detective with a lovely husband and children but has an interesting past, which adds another dimension to her character’s story.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this series with its good old-fashioned police work and I hope it won’t be too long before there’s another case in Bainbridge to solve! I’m looking forward to seeing how Isabel’s relationships with her father and half-brother develop and it would be good to get to know her colleagues, DS Fairfax and DC Piper, better too.